The new single, ‘Passive Aggressive’ by GIRLI is out now on all streaming platforms. The London-based singer, also known as Milley Toomey, has released her first track of 2021. The single ‘Passive Aggressive’ came out on 15th January, following a number of singles by GIRLI from previous years such as ‘Letter to my Ex’, ‘Has Been’ and her debut album ‘Odd One Out’.
Known for her raw and honest lyrics, GIRLI’s single ’Passive Aggressive’ is centred around when someone is talking about you behind your back. In her own Instagram caption, the punky-pop star stated, ‘this song is about people talking about you behind your back then smiling to your face, whispers at parties & dirty looks when you walk in the room, being paranoid no one likes you & the anxiety taking over. and it’s about saying WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO DAMN PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE??’
And the track encapsulates this feeling pretty much perfectly. Lyrics such as ‘When my best friend told my other best friend / The other best friend don’t wanna be friends no more / Now I’m stuck in a spider’s web’ conjures up memories of the days when everyone talked about everyone and you somehow got caught in the middle of it all. With a grunge-pop beat, the tracks chorus is infectious, impossible not to shout and dance around the room too.
GIRLI, self described as ‘the pink-hair girl who writes songs’, just oozes cool – speaking out about issues, racism, feminism and sexuality and she is not afraid of offending those that have wronged her. Her 2020 track, ‘Has Been‘, was written about her record label that dropped her, her ex and the whole music industry itself – ‘This song is for the whole music industry who treat women like they have a sell-by date”’. She was a Young MP for Camden, speaking in parliament about worker’s rights. She headlined NME’s ‘Girls to the Front’ concert series in 2019, previously headlined by acts such as Dream Wife, The Japanese House and Black Honey. The free event supports female and non-binary artists. She has a substantial and dedicated fan base, now named as ‘pinkies’ helped by her upkeep with Instagram live shows and entertainment during the pandemic. Fans can also upload their own fan zine to be featured on GIRLI’s website.
Even her stage name, GIRLI, is cool when she explains her reasonings. She stated, “When you hear the word ‘girly’, you think of the colour pink and it’s really feminine and that means weak and that means kind of dainty, cute and quiet. I wanted to subvert that. The music is loud and it’s political – I just wanted to subvert what ‘girly’ means because I don’t think the adjective ‘girly’ is a negative thing. I think it is f**king awesome.” If you are looking for honest, catchy and riot grrl music to listen to whilst the world is up in flames, GIRLI is definitely an artist that provides.
